Brendan Carr defended the timing of federal approval for the merger of Paramount Global and Skydance Media, with the Federal Communications Commission chair saying the process “ran normal course” – while also celebrating the Trump Administration’s influence on the national media landscape and suggesting that “consequences” would be felt far into the future.
Carr appeared Sunday on Fox News’ “Media Buzz” with host Howard Kurtz, who grilled the Trump appointee on how “quickly” the merger was approved after Paramount settled the president’s “60 Minutes” lawsuit for $16 million – and CBS effectively canceled “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.”
“It is giving ammunition to those who believe the skids were greased,” Kurtz said. “That the settlement … was part of an orchestrated arrangement.”
Carr chalked that perception up to “a lot of misinformation out there,” and pushed back on the notion that the timing was rushed.
“Our review here followed our very standard practice at the FCC,” Carr said. “In fact, the timing was right in the wheelhouse of when we ordinarily approve these types of transactions or at least reach a final decision both at this administration and the last administration as well. So, we ran normal course. We had a full commission vote, and really excited about the outcome.”
Carr then praised the “new buyers of CBS” for their commitment to “unbiased, fact-based reporting.”
“They’re going to report on a wide variety of political and ideological perspectives,” he said. “They’re committing to getting rid of invidious forms of DEI discrimination, reinvest in local journalism. So, I think it’s a great win for the American people.”
Kurtz noted that even Colbert’s late-night rivals Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon – and “all kinds of celebrities” – are speaking out in support of Colbert, whose cancellation was attributed by the network to financial realities.
“There’s seismic changes taking place right now across the legacy media landscape,” Carr said. “There’s a lot of reasons for that, but fundamentally, I think it goes back to President Trump. One of the things that President Trump did was he ran directly at the legacy national media, and he smashed the facade that they get to decide what we think and what we get to say.”
Carr called out a “credibility crisis” for legacy media, suggesting that the blame lies with gatekeepers who are looking to blame Trump for losing control.
“To some extent, President Trump is the reason why their business models are failing, but not for exactly the reasons that they think,” Carr said.
Kurtz pressed him on that, asking why the marketplace should not be the final arbiter.
“I think the market is speaking,” Carr said. “You saw the reports being that CBS was losing something like $50 million a year on Stephen Colbert. “And it’s great to have, you know, comedians out there. It’s great to have satire. It’s great to go after people that are in power. But one of the stories here is that, you know, Colbert and others went from being court jesters making fun of everybody to being court clerics. And they stopped going for joke lines and laugh lines and they started going for applause lines.”
Carr went back to Trump, saying the president is “speaking for the American people” who don’t trust corporate media when he attacks it.
“So, I think the consequences are going to continue to be felt for — for a period of time here,” Carr said.
Watch the entire exchange in the video here.
